Street vendors play a significant role in the informal economy, offering essential goods and services to urban populations. Their work often sustains many individuals, especially migrants and the urban poor, who rely on vending for employment. While the pay might be low, the stability it offers is crucial for their livelihoods. Additionally, vendors contribute to making city life more affordable by providing access to food, household items, and other necessities at lower prices.

Their presence helps bridge the gap in the distribution of goods, making cities more accessible for those who may not be able to afford traditional retail prices. Despite the challenges they face, such as limited legal recognition or poor working conditions, street vendors remain a vital part of urban economies worldwide. Street vendors are an integral part of the informal economy in India. They are estimated to account for 14 per cent of all informal urban employment, and 4 per cent of the urban workforce across India.

However, street vendors have historically faced numerous challenges, from evictions to harassment by authorities and the struggle for recognition was a long road, leading to a landmark law1. Given all this, the current legal regulatory framework fails to account for the need for capital. Inste ad, it primarily approaches the question of street vendors as an issue of management of public space.

In fact, a majority of the challenges before the courts in India relate to the eviction of street vendors in the name of beautification or development of the city space. An International Labour Organization report on social protection shows that public social protection expenditure is lowest in developing countries: in sub-Saharan African and Southern Asian countries it is around 4% of GDP, compared to 18.7% globally. Equality in law does not guarantee equality in social life.

Even though legalized and protected, the labels of street vendors are still viewed as "illegal" and as "usurpers" of space in the cities. The courts' jurisprudence, egged by the wider social–political discourse of world-class cities, discriminate against the vendors and place their livelihood rights at a lesser value than that of other urban rights of pedestrians, traffic, cars, parking, open spaces, shops, and so on.

Street Vendors as Economic Citizens

An economic citizen is defined as an individual who is constitutionally recognized as a citizen and has access to the same rights as others. The most fundamental of these rights is outlined in Article 19(1)(g) of the Indian Constitution. Recognition is a crucial step toward achieving citizenship. However, the complete invisibility of this sector means that street vendors are denied the right to exist, which makes it incredibly challenging for them to demand their rights and gain recognition. In Gainda Ram v. MCD², the court ruled that government bodies cannot issue regulations or orders arbitrarily without a legal framework. This decision urged the government to create proper legislation to regulate street vending. As a result, the enactment of the Street Vendors Act, 2014, officially recognized street vending as a legitimate occupation and granted vendors the status of citizens with rights. According to ILO statistics and World Bank data, nearly 70% of GDP is generated by the informal economy. He highlighted the issues surrounding the current state of social security and financial inclusion for street vendors, particularly their place within the digital financial inclusion framework. He argued that while the Indian government has been concentrating on digital financial inclusion, it has overlooked the provision of essential financial services. The long struggle for the legal recognition of street vendors has involved many landmark court rulings, but the implementation of these rulings has been problematic.

The problems of implementation include:

• Issues of regulatory design of the Street Vendors Act, 2014
• Institutional resistance to enabling informal livelihoods

While the pandemic further complicated these issues, it also prompted the Central Government to introduce the PM Street Vendor's Atma Nirbhar Nidhi ('SVANidhi') scheme, which:

• Provided microcredit to street vendors
• Accelerated their identification and enumeration in some cities.
   

PM SVANidhi Scheme

Street vendors represent a very important constituent of the urban informal economy and play a significant role in ensuring availability of the goods and services at affordable rates at the doorstep of the city dwellers. They are known as vendors, hawkers, thelewala, rehriwala, theliphadwala etc. in different areas/contexts. The goods supplied by them include:

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Ready-to-eat street food
• Tea
• Pakodas
• Breads
• Eggs
• Textile
• Apparel
• Footwear
• Artisan products
• Books/stationery

The services include:

• Barber shops
• Cobblers
• Pan shops
• Laundry services

The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdowns have adversely impacted the livelihoods of street vendors. They usually work with a small capital base and might have consumed the same during the lockdown. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide credit for working capital to street vendors to resume their business³. The scheme is a Central Sector Scheme (i.e., fully funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs) with the following objectives:

• To facilitate working capital loan up to ₹10,000
• To incentivize regular repayment
• To reward digital transactions

The scheme will help formalize the street vendors with the above objectives and will open up new opportunities to this sector to move up the economic ladder⁴.

Street Vendors: Legal Recognition and Implementation of the Street Vendors Act

The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, was a significant legislative step in India to address the challenges faced by street vendors, a large and essential part of the informal economy.

• Street vendors play a crucial role in urban economies, offering affordable products to urban populations and contributing to the goods supply chain.
• Most street vendors often come from rural areas and migrate to cities in search of better livelihood opportunities.
• The 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi marked a turning point, where many vendors were evicted due to security concerns. This led to protests from vendors and NGOs, highlighting their vulnerability and the need for protection.
• In response, Union Minister Kumari Shailja introduced the Act in 2012. It received presidential assent in 2014, formalizing the rights of street vendors and providing a legal framework for their protection.
• The Act recognizes street vendors as legitimate professionals with the right to practice their trade in designated areas.
• It protects vendors from arbitrary eviction and harassment by authorities, thereby securing their livelihoods.
• It mandates the creation of Town Vending Committees at the local level to:
  • Oversee and manage vending activities
  • Resolve conflicts
• The Act also aims to ensure access to social security benefits, including healthcare and financial support.
• It was introduced in accordance with:
  • Article 14 of the Constitution – Right to equality
  • Article 19(1)(g) – Freedom to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade, or business
• The primary objective was to:
  • Legitimize the rights of street vendors
  • Create a regulatory agency to manage street vending
  • Prevent footpath congestion and allow unrestricted traffic flow
• Before the passage of the Act, vendors were seen as encroachers on public land. The Act validated their right to vend, making their activity lawful.

Challenges Faced by Street Vendors in India

Street vendors are a global phenomenon and one of the most visible aspects of the informal sector.

They represent features of:

• Low poverty threshold
• Ease of entry into self-employment
• Large involvement of people with minimal resources

In cities and towns across the world, millions of people earn their livelihood by selling a wide range of goods and services on the streets.

However, they face several challenges, including:

• Lack of access to regular and remunerative jobs in the formal sector due to low levels of education
• Dependence on self-generated financial resources for basic survival
• Selling a variety of products such as vegetables, fruits, readymade clothes, household gadgets, toys, etc.
• Absence of recognition and regulation from formal distribution networks, making them crucial for small-scale farmers and low-income urban populations
• Limited absorption capacity of the formal sector which offers jobs to only a tiny proportion of the workforce
• Negative perception from public authorities who consider street vendors as encroachers of sidewalks and pavements
• Lack of legal protection and harassment by municipal authorities

Despite these challenges, street vendors provide a valuable service to the general public. They continue to demand protection from state agencies to earn their livelihoods without fear. Source:

1. Avi Singh Majithia, Street Vendors Act: Many roads to Implementation, WEIGO BLOG (Mar.20, 2025, 22:10),
   https://www.wiego.org/blog/delhi-diary-january-2020/
2. Gainda Ram v. MCD, (1998) 1 SCC 188.
3. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, https://pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in/Home/Schemes (last visited Mar. 21, 2025, 20:15).
4. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, https://pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in/Home/Schemes (last visited Mar. 21, 2025, 20:19).
5. Ali Faisal, Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, Legal Service India, https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-16051-street-vendors-protection-of-livelihood-and-regulation-of-street-vending-act-2014.html
6. IJCRT, A Study on Problems Faced by Street Vendors with Reference to Coimbatore Districts, (last viewed Mar. 29, 2025, 9:10)
   https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2208178.pdf

Also Read:

• Street Vendors And The Law
• Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014
• Rights Of Street Vendors And Their Exploitation